and some of my other hobbies too

Monday, May 15, 2006

This is one of my cushions. I’m going to leave the original covers and just make a duplicate to go on top of it.

Here you can see that it is made up of four parts. The main piece which covers the seat is in one length that goes from front to back. Plus there are two side panels and one zipper panel which goes at the back of the cushion.

It’s a fairly simple construction and no cording to deal with.

I need to get all the basic dimensions of the pieces….

….and jot them down.

I’m ready to lay out my fabric and cut the pieces. My fabric is 57 inches wide, more than enough for the length of the biggest piece. For straight pieces like these there is nothing easier than using a rotary cutter and self-healing mat.

The fabric is folded in half along the length so I can get the full width on the table.

Here I am cutting the main panel, which ended up at 48 x 30 inches. I rounded up the length measurement to 47 inches and added a half inch for each seam. Adding two half inch seam allowances for the width brought it to 30 inches.

I’ve folded the fabric over again so I can get it all on the cutting mat. The cut along the raw edge of the fabric is not very straight so I measure out more than 30 inches so I can straighten this edge later. I line up all the fabric edges carefully along the horizontal lines of my mat so when I place my lip edged ruler as a guide I know it will mark a perfect 90 degree cut.

I make the cut on the other side that gives me 30 inches and cuts off the crooked edge.

Now I realize that it probably would have made more sense to start with this cut first and then measure out the 30 inches from here, but I was going with the flow. Logic and efficiency didn’t occur to me until I was writing it up.

Now it is a matter of cutting the piece to the right length, which with seam allowances and a touch more is 48 inches.

I fold over the length to cut off the selvedge on one side and the excess material on the other.

Next I use a small piece of muslim fabric to make a pattern of the side panel rounded edge.

I place pins along the seam to mark to shape of the piece.

And then use a pen to mark the fabric.

I clean up the seam marking…

And make sure the width is correct.

Now I’ll just mark in the seam allowances and cut it out to use as a pattern for my side panels.